"No. Neither is it centered on your nation, Ambassador. Please refrain from making any undue assumptions in the text."
"The Imperium may say that it has the capabilities to fulfil the requirements of the proposal, but exemptions are not consistent with WA rules. If they were, any nation could claim that they were capable of handling the mandates of a resolution, and therefore, all nations could, making the WA useless as a legislative body."
"Yes, and?"
"I was referencing tourism from within ones borders to space, not from foreign states to within national borders, but since there is no actual need to include that in the resolution, I've removed the it from the draft, so the confusion on this topic should be cleared up."
"Do not mistake the legal capacity of a foreign entity to do so for qualification. Imperial Civil Oversight has been setting such standards for centuries; and it has full access to all design and material specifications necessary to make any such determinations. An 'international' standard, tuned to the lowest-common-denominator, all but certainly, is nothing but an obstruction, and an invitation to disaster where the actual needs of something far exceed the standards imposed by the World Assembly."
"If you want to help me match, or supercede, what you believe to be the capability of the ICO in the requirements for this resolution, so nations like Tinfect can benefit from this resolution, then please do. It'd be better than this banal, tennis match of an altercation. But if you wish to endlessly keep assuming Tinfectian supremacy in the industry of commercial spaceflight, please refer to my first response."
"And why, exactly, is the unfortunate incompetence of certain lesser Member-States justification to supercede the authority of all Member-States? In other words, Ambassador, if certain member-states are unable to manage their affairs, why is that the concern of the Imperium? Or, for example, the Confederate Dominion? In other words; why is this a matter justifying International action in the first place? You cannot simply presume that it is wherein there is reasonable dispute of the matter."
"If you genuinely believe Tinfect has superior standards for commercial spaceflight, perhaps your contribution to this matter, one of which it seems you are heavily invested, should be to help achieve international standards that match what you believe to be the superior standards of your nation, so Tinfect can prove that it is capable of safe commercial spaceflight for the citizens it is responsible for as a member of the World Assembly. Otherwise, you are free to just... disagree, which would be a waste of the abilities Tinfect has in this area, but
please don't continue to suggest this proposal is not needed because
your nation supercedes its requirements. Alhough I hope it isn't, if the latter is the path you wish to follow, please, once again, refer to my first response."
"Quite well, I assure you. The interference of unnecessary and unwanted foreign personnel is, perhaps tautologically, unnecessary, and unwanted."
"Once again, Ambassador, my first response. Prove that Tinfect is capable of the requirements the Imperium must believe are necessary. But don't just claim it."
"Attempting to make 'clever quips' is a poor replacement for a genuine argument, Ambassador. Do answer the question, if you're able?"
"I am simply addressing how you have chosen to approach this issue. I am not trying to be clever."
"In response to your position on the issue: there are many areas of WA law that any nation could refute with the argument of national sovereignty in the vein of individual capability in handling the law in question, but, as previously passed WA laws prove, international standards of the highest degree are required for a whole variety of issues involving the people and business of member nations, regardless of the capabilities of member nations to handle said issues. I am sure your argument has been used to attempt refute hundreds of passed laws in the past as well, which is why your knowledge of these issues are needed for this draft, if you believe Tinfect to be of superior standards."
"Do read your own proposal, Ambassador; unless you expect me to believe that the Inspectors are to enter an application on behalf of the entity they are inspecting?"
"I believe there may have been some confusion. Inspectors would verify that the member nation is capable of fulfilling the requirements of the license, and therefore validate their application for one. The CSSM would have no bearing on
who exactly would be putting this application together or submitting it within an applying organisation, although I would reasonably assume that if an organisation genuinely wished to apply for the license, they would task a capable, knowledgeable person with doing so, so that the applications chances of acceptance are raised. The CSSM would review the application and inspect whether or not they are capable of mitigating the risks to the lives of the passengers of which their operations would involve, and make a decision following inspection. Does any part of that explanation still not agree with you?"
"Ambassador, space is quite distinctly not an international zone. The Imperium controls several dozen systems within the Interior Territories alone, and far more in the Exterior; discounting entirely the fact that the Imperium controls vast areas of space beyond the reach of star systems. The World Assembly has no right to be gathering information on our citizens, simply as a matter of security and privacy, and it certainly has no right to be doing so within our own borders.
"Your last statement seems to be in complete contradiction to everything the World Assembly exists to achieve. How else would the WA ensure its laws are upheld than to gather the information required to do so? Telepathy? Unless the WA exists simply to ask member nations nicely to follow its laws, which, like my first response, means the WA, effectively, is useless."
"Did you intend to imply that you have no intention of improving this legislation, and will merely dismiss any and all criticism, or was this merely another attempt at appearing oh-so clever?"
"I am implying that you can continue to disagree with and eventually vote against the
general aim of this proposal, or, as I have said, you could help me improve it."
"I've insinuated nothing of the sort; the Imperium knows as a matter of fact that there exist more advanced Member-States. This does not make the World Assembly, or indeed, those foreign states, remotely qualified to overtake the role of the Imperial government."
"That's good."
"And I think it does. The fact that there are more advanced nations than others in every single area covered by WA law, means, by default, that WA law exists to set the standards, or otherwise, it is useless, and only asks member nations nicely. So, help me get this draft to international standard, for the benefit of every nation, if you believe it is not already."
"The Imperium has a measure of trust in the competence of itself, Ambassador. Further, the World Assembly is necessarily a foreign entity; it is inherently underqualified to do the work of the Imperium. There are roles for it, of course; but unilaterally superseding the role of the Imperium within our own territories is not one of them."
"First response."
"The WA is already involved in hundreds of areas of law the Imperium may or may not cover. Is Tinfect generally opposed to all areas of WA regulation of which it believes it has more effective national law?"
"This legislation makes no distinction between space and 'international' space."
"Thank you for pointing this out. I hope my amendment to the definition of commercial spaceflight activity helps make this distinction more apparent."
"I certainly hope your misinterpretation was not deliberate; certainly Member-States are to be assumed to be reasonably capable of preventing unauthorized launch within their own territories? Those unauthorized launches in foreign territories are the concern of foreign governments; not of the Imperium."
"It was not a misinterpretation. Your initial response was, rather. The purpose of that clause is to
only allow a body capable of regulating commercial spaceflight to an internationally recognized standard (the CSSM) to authorize commercial spaceflight activities for nations who either: 1) require such guidance due to inexperience, given contributions from experienced nations like Tinfect, 2) nations who need it so little that it would be really easy to prove beyond reasonably doubt that their spaceflight activities are not going to risk the deaths of those involved, and 3) nations who are somewhat comfortable with their spaceflight safety, but want to ensure that all of their commercial spaceflight activities are safe for those involved. There may be cases that I have not included, but they are the general cases for which that clause would apply."
"I would hope it has been made clear by now that we find the paltry protections of the World Assembly's laws regarding information to be sorely lacking."
"First response."
"Quite unlike certain Delegations, the Imperium prefers to refrain from speaking on matters for which it is not qualified. The Imperium speaks for its own interests.
But, so as to humor you; the only Member-States to whom this legislation could be useful are those particularly primitive Member-States which lack any capacity for or understanding of space travel. For all others, this Legislation serves solely to dismantle any systems currently in place, and provide an obstruction or, in certain circumstances, hazard, to future development. Advanced Member-States lacking means of public transportation, or those heavily reliant on privately-operated systems for such, will effectively grind to a halt as those services all, simultaneously, shut down, so as to acquire entirely new licensing. In the Imperium, in the interests of the safety and security of our citizens, the industry is simply abolished entirely; livelihoods and professions would dissolve in an instant, and not all Member-States are so kind as to prepare an exit mechanism for those personnel in now-nonexistent work.
I certainly hope that suffices, Ambassador."
"It does not suffice."
"If your argument was correct, any industry affected by WA resolution that holds significant importance within the Imperium will have lead to the dissolution of countless livelihoods tens of times over already, which I would assume is enough for any gargantuan spacefaring civilisation with incomprehensibly large areas of jurisdiction? And even if that held true, given the expanse of the Imperium over what I must assume is lightyears of physical space, how does
any WA regulation come into effect over all of the physical territories of Tinfect once it is passed? I would assume that due to the physical distance between territories in the Imperium, it simply cannot be helped if commercial spaceflight does not become properly regulated for a very very long time, unless the Imperium has access to some unknown communication technology? Tinfect is not advanced enough to break the laws of physics, is it?"